Umran
Umran
@umran.ca
Generalist with good taste in rabbit holes | Bayesian
wild that Propublica got the scoop on airborne bird flu before public health authorities in the US
November 18, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Reposted by Umran
Canada’s new government is launching ambitious pro-competition measures — to help lower your banking fees and phone bills.
November 6, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Reposted by Umran
🫠 automerge.org

The new Automerge website is live!!

The biggest (smallest) surprise? How fun it was to build the demo!

Automerge is so robust, it withstood all our weird ideas — like using physics-driven particles to literally push changes between docs — and it just worked. Perfectly. Every time.
October 16, 2025 at 9:41 PM
Reposted by Umran
i think the only way for atproto to succeed is for us to show what apps can do when every app sees every other app's public data, and they share an identity system. no technical or sociological argument is as convincing as seeing seamless interop and the lighthearted competitive landscape it unlocks
October 12, 2025 at 10:12 PM
Reposted by Umran
Paper update: our recent work on Thompson sampling has a shiny new - and I hope much better - name!

This new name does much better job of emphasizing what we actually do.

Joint work with Jeff Negrea. Thread below!
September 29, 2025 at 7:55 PM
Scaling MCMC to millions of observations in a hierarchical model is not fun
September 26, 2025 at 11:15 PM
My experience with ChatGPT 5:

thought for x seconds
rendered for 10x seconds
September 26, 2025 at 10:56 PM
Reposted by Umran
I was just blankly staring at my Google Scholar (as everyone, I assume, does) and thinking about what things get cited and the relationship to what is good science.

My main conclusion is that it is frankly wild to me that this paper is not getting read more

journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...
Generative Bayesian modeling to nowcast the effective reproduction number from line list data with missing symptom onset dates
Author summary During an infectious disease outbreak, public health authorities require timely indicators of transmission dynamics, such as the effective reproduction number Rt. Since reporting data a...
journals.plos.org
September 12, 2025 at 10:03 AM
My Malaysian flatmate made Hainanese chicken rice. There's no better end to dorm life than this.
September 7, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Reposted by Umran
As we’ve reported on sexual misconduct by OB-GYNs, many women told us they didn’t know what was normal.

With the help of providers, patients and experts, we created this guide.

(Published 2023)
Concerned About Your OB-GYN Visit? A Guide to What Should Happen — and What Shouldn’t.
As we’ve reported on sexual misconduct by OB-GYNs, many women told us they didn’t know what was normal. With the help of providers, patients and experts, we created this guide.
www.propublica.org
September 5, 2025 at 11:45 PM
I'm entertained every single time I rewatch the Big Lebowski. The interval between runs does not seem to matter.
September 2, 2025 at 2:19 AM
Tonight I caught a glimpse of Nagel's "view from nowhere", thanks to shaking chills caused by a stupid infection I picked up. It's funny how perspective works sometimes
September 2, 2025 at 1:40 AM
Reposted by Umran
Things are changing. interc.pt/47PQNDW
August 31, 2025 at 12:24 AM
Reposted by Umran
Trump fires Lisa Cook in an unprecedented move, and immediately the US dollar sinks against the Yen (in red), the Euro (teal), and the British Pound (purple). Stocks are also sorting it out, but down around a quarter point.

Point is: Markets don't think this is move helps American business.
August 26, 2025 at 12:48 AM
Reposted by Umran
My lab's been attacked by an anti-wind group and their lawyers. They threatened the science funding of my whole university, to shut me and my undergraduate research assistants up.

NYT just covered it. 1/n

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/25/c...
Law Firm Pressures Brown University to Erase Research on Anti-Wind Groups
www.nytimes.com
August 25, 2025 at 11:32 AM
Reposted by Umran
If you live in the Twin Cities, you can have Rosie come live with you until she finds a permanent home. It would be free. They’ll even give you food and toys for her.

new.shelterluv.com/embed/animal...
August 16, 2025 at 2:55 AM
Reposted by Umran
When MSNBC is the last bastion of free market economics.
Mr President:

Tariffs will slow the economy and raise inflation.

Come at me bro.
August 13, 2025 at 8:26 PM
Reposted by Umran
A Minneapolis pediatrician said he felt pressured to “fall in line” with child abuse specialist Dr. Nancy Harper and her team.

Then he was given a choice: resign or be fired.

(Published June)
A Doctor Challenged the Opinion of a Powerful Child Abuse Specialist. Then He Lost His Job.
A Minneapolis pediatrician said he felt pressured to “fall in line” with child abuse specialist Dr. Nancy Harper and her team. Then he was given a choice: resign or be fired.
www.propublica.org
August 13, 2025 at 11:30 PM
ChatGPT doesn't get enough love in acknowledgements of dissertations post 2024
August 8, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Reposted by Umran
marco rubio's google history right now:

"what does the bls do"
"econometrics explained"
"jobs report template"
"r tutorial for beginners"
"r tutorial for beginners no indian instructor"
August 2, 2025 at 1:53 AM
Reposted by Umran
i fear that the left has become so reactionary to big tech capitalism that their aversion, distaste, and growing illiteracy around technology is just going to inadvertently help the capitalists succeed
August 1, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Reposted by Umran
We created a blog! Our first post goes in-depth on how we managed to properly display our player in front of or behind assets — creating the illusion of 3D in our 2D game. #indiegames #indiegame #gamedev #indiedev
How we handle Z Order in our isometric game.
It took us a while to come up with our current solution, and we’d love to hear your thoughts on it.
periphery.blog
July 21, 2025 at 6:14 AM
Reposted by Umran
Striking. After Texas banned abortion, ER visits for early miscarriage rose 25% and blood transfusions surged 54%.

Doctors delayed care like D&Cs out of fear of prosecution. More women nearly bled to death. buff.ly/egXhmm7

#medsky #ObGynsky 🛟🧪
July 19, 2025 at 6:38 PM